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X-18 Class Neuroi
The X-18 Class Neuroi is a powerful, Large-type air unit that ambushed and attacked the Fuso fleet heading to Romangna. It was detected by the Yamato's radar room at a range of 16,000 feet (4,876.8 m) away when it was identified entering what was supposed to be the Fuso Fleet's safe zone. It was initally fought by both the fleet itself and by Lynette Bishop while Miyafuji Yoshika was having difficulties trying to fly with her striker and using her magic. Background The X-18 Class is described in after action reports as a powerful Neuroi that attacked the Fusoan fleet heading to Romagna. The X-18 attacked the Fuso Fleet while it was escorting the Yamato inside a designated safe zone. Allied intelligence have theorized that the Neuroi had homed in on the Yamato's core control system by unknown means, and had been targeting that system specifically during its attack. While Lynnette put up a brave and admirable resistance against the X-18 to defend the Fuso Fleet and eventually distract the X-18 to allow the Fleet to Escape the X-18's attack range: she was tired and exhausted quickly by the heavy, powerful assault of the X-18. She was able to put up one last shield but was shot down from the exhaustion and her sheild shattering; though thankfully her shield failed just as the attack ended. However; without any more energy or magic stamina left; Lynnette was left free falling to the ocean bellow; which at her last altitude being shot down from; would be potentially life threatening. An interesting note is that when Miyafuji Yoshika finally made her rescue of Lynn, in full force with of her magic at it's fullest potential and operating the J7W1 Shinden Striker Unit: the X-18 seemed to try and commit a full frontal assault with all forward facing beam ports against Sergeant Miyafuji; seemingly recognizing and identifying her as an extreme threat to prioritize elimination. Yoshika, in uncharacteristic anger and righteous fury, born of deep, protective feelings of Lynnette; brought up a massive, powerful protective magical shield: blocking the X-18's attack. In response to this attack: Yoshika proceeded to charge headfirst into the X-18, her large magic shield shrinking to a size small enough to be focused in protecting her head and body while flying into the X-18. She proceeded to fly through the X-18's body shooting relentlessly until she finally destroyed the X-18's core and exited out the other side of the Neuroi. Weapons The X-18 contains a set of uniform beam ports along it's body, with a single port on the top and bottom of it's front, and a row of beam ports along the font sides and rear end of the crafts body. However, as noted in Fuso Fleet after action reports; the beams fired by this particular Neuroi craft are much more powerful than normal, causing catastrophic damage to fleet ships and at a faster than normal level than average: taxing Lynnett's reserves of magical stamina as she tried to defend the Fuso fleet. The emphasis of the greater power of this Neuroi's beam attacks is significant as it implies a greater than normal threat level in the this Neuroi's offensive combat capabilities. Another note on the X-18's beam attacks is that it's frontal beams can be fired in a sustained, circular, scythe like motion to destroy simple targets like conventional fighter aircraft. And such beams from these ports are of surprisingly good accuracy and effect within a short to medium range; and is devastating against aircraft. It is observed that long range and heavy beam attacks seem to face a loss of accuracy in exchange for pure firepower. Abilities, Tactics and Behavior The X-18's major ability, as mentioned prior; is it's greater than normal beam attack power being much greater than average. Such offensive power can prove highly dangerous against both conventional and witch units in facing combat against the X-18, and such power may cause quicker fatigue and expending of a witches magical stamina if forced purely on the defensive. Other noted abilities of the X-18, however, includes very thick armor; this information has been noted in after action reports that this Neuroi was observed as having such thick enough armor; that it was able to resist the Yamato's 46cm guns. This means that the defensive abilities of the X-18 are exceptional against conventional firepower of even the highest caliber, even with incendiary rounds. Another ability noted in after action reports of the X-18, is this Neuroi having overwhelming regeneration speed, compared to it's alien peers. While it seems the X-18 must belay attacking in order to quickly regenerate damage; it seems the very moment repairs are complete: it can immediately resume it's attacks. It seems that Lynnette's Boy's Mark 1 was also not enough to do any significant damage despite it's power both in terms of the conventional large caliber and the augmentation with magic mass to the round; as the Kynoch & RG .55 Boys round didn't even penetrate or damage the thick armor of the X-18. The X-18 Class doesn't rely on flashy or elegant tactics as far as flight maneuvers are concerned, it simply fly's in a slow and steady path towards it's target. It attacks and bombards enemies with overwhelming force while soaking up attacks; it's very thick armor and faster than normal regeneration allow this Neuroi to brush off attacks made against it while it hammers it's opponents with some impunity. While it appears to prefer to attack everything and anything it can with overwhelming force; it seems able to make some determination of significant targets to prioritize, both trying to prioritize attacking the Yamato as it's main, intended target, and than eventually Lynnette when she was proving more problematic in her defending of the Fuso Fleet. It seems to treat lesser threats as something of a mere casual nuisance or afterthought than actual threat, and thus appears to expend only little effort against lesser threats. It does seem to give most priority and effort to more substantial threats like that of fleet ships, and given the most attention and powerful attacks against the Yamato. It's more powerful attacks do seem to suffer a level of inaccuracy at longer and even at times comparatively medium ranges, and thus it needs to close the gap with it's target to make killing blows or finish off enemy fleet vessels it has damaged or crippled. While the X-18 gave a large amount of attention and made it's most powerful attacks against the Yamato; it seems such attacks against the Yamato lacked accuracy, what with most of these attacks directed at the Fuso battleship being somewhat off target or at best near hits, which is surprising given the Yamato's large size; although it's possible that if it the X-18 was able to close the distance further when using these attacks; it could have struck devastating blows on even the Yamato. When the X-18 is detected by the 501st's radar at Pascara: Minna-Dietlinde Wilcke notes in her confusion that the X-18 was 500 meters from where the Neuroi hive was located. Sakamoto Mio further adds that apparently no Neuroi has ever flown out so far from it's hive before. This is an indication that most Neuroi tend to usually operate within a normal set distance from their hives for operations, and seemingly not flying too far from their hives. This lends credance to the fact the X-18's deployment behavior is a stark departure from normal, and was a course of action by this Neuroi that even the 501st couldn't readily understand. Trivia *The aesthetic design of the X-18 is inspired by the Atomic Bomb, specifically one of the atomic bombs of the Manhattan Project: most likely the "Fat Man" bomb due to its shape. *While the Strike Witches II Official Fanbook outline the X-18 as being aesthetically inspired by the atomic bomb of the Manhattan Project (specifically the Fat Man), its design also seems to somewhat invoke the appearance of a blimp or other airship, leading to some of the fandom, on casual inspection and impression: refer to the X-18 as a "Blimp-Shaped Neuroi", although truth of the matter is that it's exact unit typing is not specifically outlined outside of being a Large Sized Neuroi. *The X-18 has a spiked ring around it's bomb/blimp shaped body that rotates around it's bodies circumference; although it's unknown if this component of it's body serves any function. *While the highly defensive armor and faster than normal regeneration was greater than that of other Neuroi up to this point; the fact that Yoshika was able to use the J7W1 and her full magical power to ram and fire magic mass rounds into the X-18 to destroy it's core; shows how much Yoshika's magic power has grown from where she started from. It is also a testament to Yoshika's protective desire to protect others, and in this instance, to protect Lynette, that helped her breach the X-18's thick armor and destroy it from the inside out. *The Official Fanbook notes that the X-18, prior to attacking the Fuso Fleet: was first deployed from the X-20 in Malta *The X-18's overwhelming regeneration speed is a significant note given that the Official Strike Witches II Fanbook notes that the Regeneration of all Neuroi during Season 2 had increased somewhat since the Neuroi units seen in Season 1. Given these factors, and the fact that the first Neuroi seen with faster regeneration abilities were noted late in the Fuso Sea Incident and has maintained that arbitrary speed of regeneration through Season 1 of the anime; implies that the Neuroi 'development of regeneration abilities has been incrementally evolving to being faster than before. In turn; this means that the X-18 has, at this time, the fastest regeneration of the Neuroi seen in Season 2 of the Anime and thus far in the series overall, especially for a simple Large-Type Neuroi air unit. *The X-18's actual intended mission objective, while not known in it's debut episode, is only specifically outlined and contextualized in the Strike Witches II Official Fanbook; which states outright that the X-18's mission was to track the Neuroi Core that was held inside the Yamato and to destroy the Yamato and the Magic Dynamo that held this slaved Core. Initial appearances on it's debut episode would easily be dismissed as mere happenstance; but the Official fanbook indicates otherwise. *Implications from the Strike Witches II Official Fanbook's information seem to suggest the Neuroi specifically created the X-18 to counter and destroy the Yamato before it could be deployed against the Super Hive. This would imply that the Neuroi somehow managed to acquire intelligence about the Yamato project, to whatever degree, and tried to counter it. Wither this further suggests that the Neuroi have a far more developed intelligence network than the Allies realize is unknown, and difficult to quantify given that the exact nature of Neuroi intelligence gathering is not solidly outlined or quantified. Gallery X-18 Class Neuroi Official Fanbook info and photos.png|X-18 Official Fanbook Info and Photos X-18 Class Neuroi appears.png|X-18 Makes appearance X-18 Class Neuroi approches the Fuso Fleet.png X-18 facing Fuso aircraft.png X-18 engaged by Fuso fighter aircraft.png X-18 Class engaging Fuso aircraft.png X-18 engaging fuso fleet 2.png X-18 engaging fuso fleet 3.png X-18 shoots down Fuso A6M Zero.png X-18 beam attack against Fuso Fleet.png X-18 beam attack against Fuso Fleet Zero's shot down.png X-18 fired upon by Yamato.png|Yamato About to fire first barrage at X-18 X-18 Class About to be hit by Yamato's shells.png X-18 hit by Yamato's shells.png|X-18 hit by Yamato's first barrage X-18 returns fire on Yamato.png X-18 post return fire on Yamato.png X-18 about to take Yamato's second volly.png X-18 fast regeneration.png|X-18 quickly regenerating damage from Yamato's attack X-18 repaired and returning fire.png|X-18 immediately fires on Yamato after regeneration X-18 about to destroy the Takao.png|X-18 attempting to destroy Fuso ship Takao X-18 attack about to hit Takao.png|X-18 moving closer to perform killing blow on Takao Lynnette defending Takao from X-18 attack.png|Lynn protecting the Takao from the X-18's attack X-18 beam barrage.png X-18 continued barrage.png X-18 from the front.png X-18 and Lynne.png Lynne about to fire at X-18.png|Lynette about to fire Boy's Mk 1 at X-18 Lynnette's shot against the X-18.png|Lynne's fired round about to hit X-18 Lynnette's shot against the X-18 no effect.png|Lynne's attack unable to penetrate X-18 thick armor X-18 attacks Lynne.png X-18 attacking Lynnette.png X-18 final strike against Lynnette.png X-18 preparing to attack Yoshika and Lynne.png X-18 about to fire beam attack at Yoshika and Lynne.png X-18 about to fire beam attack at Yoshika and Lynne charged.png Yoshika blocks X-18's beam attack.png X-18 Class Front.png X-18 breached by Yoshika's ram attack.png X-18 front hit by Yoshikas charge.png Yoshika attacking inside X-18.png X-18 Classes Core.png|X-18's Core X-18 class death rattle.png X-18 preceding destruction.png X-18 Class Destroyed.png|X-18 exploding into Neuroi Fragments Category:Neuroi